Excerpt: Gunmen killed an Iraqi journalist from the New York Times as he drove to work Friday, the third staffer of a Western news outlet to be killed in the past two days. In his last moments, Khaled W. Hassan called his mother on his cell phone and told her he had been shot.

Hassan was the second Times employee killed in the Iraq conflict, in which 110 journalists and 40 media support staffers have been killed since the 2003 U.S. invasion, according to the Commitee to Protect Journalists.

Excerpt: Fighting in a southeastern neighborhood here between the U.S. military and Shiite militias left at least 16 people dead Thursday, including a Reuters photographer and driver who were covering the turbulence, an official at the Interior Ministry said.

There were conflicting reports of how the two Reuters staffers, both of whom were Iraqi, were killed, but witnesses at the scene said they died when troops on a U.S. helicopter shot into the area where the two had just gotten out of their car, said a photographer who arrived at the scene shortly after their bodies were taken away.

The Reuters employees were Namir Noor-Eldeen, 22, the photographer, and Saeed Chmagh, 40.

Excerpt: Mahmoud Hasib Kassab, an ethnic Turkmen who was the chief editor of a Turkmen language newspaper, was killed in front of his home, according to the police reports.

Kassab was the eighth journalist killed this month in Iraq, the worst month for Iraqi journalists this year. Reporters sans frontières has recorded 22 deaths of reporters in the country, making it the most dangerous place in the word for media workers.

Excerpt: "On November 13, a hectic day when Kabul fell to the Northern Alliance and there were celebrations in the streets of the city, a U.S. missile obliterated Al-Jazeera's office," Suskind wrote in the book The One Percent Doctrine. Inside the CIA and White House there was satisfaction that a message had been sent to Al-Jazeera ... The Pentagon asserted then, without providing additional detail, that the office was a "known al-Qaeda facility" and that the U.S. military did not know that the space was being used by Al-Jazeera.

Excerpt: The U.S. military command in Iraq has blocked two Italian policemen from examining the car in which an Italian intelligence agent was shot to death in Baghdad, a newspaper said Wednesday.

Corriere della Sera said that the policemen were about to leave when the Italian Embassy in Baghdad received an order from the U.S. command on Monday to abort the mission for security concerns. The embassy in Baghdad reportedly alerted Rome authorities, who called off the trip.

The car, a Toyota Corolla, is reportedly still in American hands, at Baghdad airport where it was originally rented.

Excerpt: Bureau Chief Andrew Marshall observed in his report, "It should be noted that the bulk of their mistreatment -- including their humiliating interrogations and the mental and physical torment of the first night which all agreed was the worst part of their ordeal -- occurred several hours AFTER I had informed the 82nd Airborne Division that they were Reuters staff. I have e-mail proof of this."

Excerpt: The Pentagon has threatened to fire on the satellite uplink positions of independent journalists in Iraq, according to veteran BBC war correspondent, Kate Adie. In an interview with Irish radio, Ms. Adie said that questioned about the consequences of such potentially fatal actions, a senior Pentagon officer had said: "Who cares.. ..They've been warned."

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Reporters killed in Iraq sincethe U.S. invasion, March 20, 2003:

Saleh Ibrahim, an Associated Press Television News cameraman,
killed when gunfire broke out after an explosion in the northern
city of Mosul, April 23, 2005.

Television journalists Fadhil Hazem Fadhi and Ali Ibrahim
Issa, both working for Al-Hurriya, killed when they drove by
suicide bombings outside the Interior Ministry in Baghdad while on
their way to an assignment, April 14, 2005.

Iraqi news anchor Raeda Wazzan, working for Iraqi state TV
channel Al-Iraqiya, kidnapped on February 20, 2005 and found dead with
multiple gunshots in the head five days later on a roadside in
Mosul where she had lived and worked, Feb. 25, 2005.

Iraq television correspondent Abdul Hussein Khazal al-Basri,
40, working for U.S.-funded Iraqi television station Al-Hurra, and
his 3-year-old son, Mohammed, both killed by gunmen as they left
their home in Basra, Feb. 9, 2005.

Iraqi freelance cameraman Dhia Najim, on assignment for
Reuters, killed in Ramadi where he had been covering a gunbattle
between the U.S. military and Iraqi insurgents, Nov. 1, 2004.

Iraqi television anchorwoman Leqaa Abdul Razzaq, working for
Al-Sharqiyah television, killed by gunmen as she was traveling by
taxi to her home in Baghdad, Oct. 27, 2004.

Iraqi photographer Karam Hussein, working for European
Pressphoto Agency, killed by a group of gunmen in front of his home
in Mosul, Oct. 14, 2004.

Iraqi television reporter Dina Mohammed Hassan, working for
Al-Hurriya, was killed in a drive-by shooting in front of her
Baghdad residence by a gunman who shouted ``Collaborator!
Collaborator!'' Oct. 14, 2004.

Palestinian television journalist Mazen al-Tumeizi, a reporter
for Al-Arabiya television, reportedly killed after a U.S.
helicopter fired missiles and machine guns to destroy a disabled
American vehicle in Baghdad, Sept. 12, 2004.

Ismail Taher Mohsin, an Iraqi driver who worked for the AP,
was ambushed by gunmen and killed near his home in Baghdad. The
reasons for the slaying have never become clear, Sept. 2, 2004.

Italian freelance journalist Enzo Baldoni, 56, working for
Milan-based weekly magazine Diario della Settimana and researching
a book on militants, murdered by kidnappers from a militant group
calling itself the Islamic Army in Iraq near Najaf, Aug. 26, 2004.

Iraqi cameraman Mahmoud Hamid Abbas, 32, working for the
German television station Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen, killed on
assignment in Fallujah, Aug. 15, 2004.

Japanese photographer Shinsuke Hashida, 61, and his nephew,
journalist Kotaro Ogawa, 33, on assignment for the Japanese daily
Nikkan Gendai, killed in an ambush south of Baghdad, May 27, 2004.

Jose Couso, cameraman for Spanish television network
Telecinco, and Taras Protsyuk, Ukrainian TV cameraman for Reuters,
killed when U.S. tank fired at Palestine hotel in Baghdad, April 8, 2003.

Christian Liebig, of Germany's Focus weekly, and Julio
Parrado, of Spain's El Mundo, killed in Iraqi rocket attack on U.S.
Army's 3rd Infantry Division south of Baghdad, April 7, 2003.

Kamaran Abdurazaq Muhamed, Kurdish translator for BBC, killed
in U.S. aircraft bombing of joint convoy of Kurdish fighters and
U.S. Special Forces in northern Iraq, April 6, 2003.

David Bloom, NBC News reporter, died from an apparent blood
clot while covering the war south of Baghdad, April 6, 2003.

Michael Kelly, editor-at-large for The Atlantic Monthly,
killed when Humvee he was riding in with U.S. Army's 3rd Infantry
Division plunged into canal near Baghdad, April 3, 2003.

Kaveh Golestan, Iranian freelance cameraman for BBC, killed in
land mine explosion in northern town of Kifrey, April 2, 2003.

Gaby Rado, correspondent for Britain's Channel 4 News, died
after apparently falling from a hotel roof in northern Iraq, March
30, 2003.

Terry Lloyd, correspondent for Britain's Independent
Television News, and translator Hussein Osman of Lebanon, shot in
fighting between coalition and Iraqi forces near Basra, March 22, 2003. Independent Television News journalist, cameraman Fred Nerac
of France, has been missing since this incident.

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